Christmas Cheer
by Obsessed With 52
Summary: Takes place at Christmas during OotP. Hermione and Ron spread some Christmas Cheer. I don't own Harry Potter.


'Those two idiots would be fucked without you, Hermione,' said Ginny, as she got ready for bed.

Hermione merely smiled as she too got ready for bed.

'I mean it,' said Ginny, 'as brave as they are, without your brains they'd be fucked or dead.'

'We're a team, Ginny, we're friends and we help each other out, but this time Harry didn't just need Ron and me, he needed you as well, he needed your experience from when that diary possessed you to make him realise that he didn't do anything to hurt your dad,' Hermione told her.

'He trusts you so much, he opens up to you without having to think about it. I want that to be me one day, but I'm still just Ron's little sister to him,' Ginny said longingly.

'You still helped though, Ginny, that's something, and I know Harry appreciates it,' Hermione said.

'And I know Ron appreciates you being here,' said Ginny.

'I've told you before, he doesn't see me like that,' Hermione said sadly.

'He does, he's just a rather thick boy and doesn't know it, or he does know it and is in denial or scared to say anything.'

'The only way Ron would like me would be if every other girl in the world were dead.'

'Trust me, he loves you, Hermione.'

'If he did "love me" as you put it, the only way he'd confess would be if the sky was falling in on us.'

'You won't tell him how you feel first?'

'No, I won't, it's the boy's place to say it first, goodnight, Ginny,' Hermione said bringing the discussion to an abrupt end.

'Hmm, well, goodnight,' said Ginny before she got into bed, turned and went to sleep.

Hermione copied her and as she lay there, she realised that she really did not want to think about Ron, so she went over the events of the past couple of days in her head. She had been told by Dumbledore what had happened to Mr Weasley, and that Harry was isolating and blaming himself for what had happened. So she wrote a letter to her parents telling them that Mr Weasley was in hospital after an accident and that her friends needed her, and could not go on the planned skiing holiday with them. She then caught the Knight Bus to a nearby street and walked the rest of the way to Grimmauld Place. She had then spoken about Harry to Ron and Ginny who confirmed what Dumbledore had told her about his behaviour. She then went up to where Harry had been hiding and got him to come to the room he shared with Ron, who was waiting with Ginny for them. Once they were gathered, she told Harry a few facts with Ron's help before Ginny had told him her experiences of possession. This finally got Harry out of his funk and actually started to enjoy the Christmas holidays and being away from the toad that was Dolores Umbridge.

Hermione was not exactly pleased about being at Grimmauld Place for Christmas, she had wanted to spend the holidays with her parents despite the fact that skiing wasn't her thing. This was because she had not spent much time around her parents since the summer before third year when she went to France with them. She stayed at the Burrow for the vast majority of the summer before her fourth year because Ron had invited her to see the Quidditch World Cup Final. Last summer, she stayed with her parents for the grand total of a week before she had left for the Burrow, and later, Grimmauld Place. Now she was back in the old house she had spent and wasted her summer cleaning, she was where she was needed rather than where she was wanted and wanted to be. With that cheery thought, she turned over and attempted to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, Ron was struggling to fall asleep. He was lying in his bed thinking as his roommate, Harry, was snoring very loudly. Ron was not surprised that Harry was now able to sleep, and was glad that Hermione and Ginny were able to talk some sense into him.

Ron was pleased that Harry was out of his funk but could not help being a little surprised that Ginny had been one of the people to help. He knew that ever since Harry's first stay at the Burrow she had difficulty in forming a sentence while he was in the room due to her enormous crush on him. Ron also began to think that maybe he was the wrong Weasley by Harry's side. Ever since their falling out last year, Ron had been trying to make it up to him but all he had been able to was give him his belated full support in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Ron often wondered what his role was with his two best friends these days. He could not help but wonder what he had to offer them. Was he merely Harry's sidekick? Or was he just the comic relief? But then another idea popped into his head. Maybe his role was simply to take a killing curse for one of the people he loved. As he thought about it, it seemed like a logical conclusion. Taking a killing curse for a member of his family would not be a problem for him, especially his parents and Ginny. His thoughts then turned back to Harry and Hermione.

Ron had been through so much with them both. They both meant the world to him, and Harry, his brother in all but blood, was the target of the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time. The bastard had to be stopped somehow, and if he had to take a killing curse for Harry in order to save him, he would do it without question. He then remembered that his other best friend, Hermione, needed to be protected too.

Hermione was muggle-born and a target for the bigots who blindly followed their master. His relationship with Hermione was changing, he knew that. They were getting closer all the time, and ever since they had decided to have their debates in private, he enjoyed them a little more because they had agreed that after any and all of their debates they would hug afterwards so that they would not be angry with each other. Ron loved this arrangement. Hermione hugs were so much better than all the other hugs he got, though there weren't a lot of others for the Hermione hugs to compete with. She always felt so good in his arms and she was so warm. Ron thought that Hermione was beautiful. She was beautiful but she could be a pain in the arse sometimes as well. Her obsession with school work and getting it done drove him bonkers, especially when all he wanted to do was relax and have a game of wizard's chess with Harry. She would glare at him until he acquiesced and she would help him when he got stuck, which was usually with Potions and Transfiguration. All he really needed her to do for him was to translate whatever he didn't understand into plain, simple English. Then, when he was finished, she looked over his essays for errors and spelling mistakes that she would correct and then return them to him and he always thanked her for it.

He really loved Hermione.

How could he not? She was beautiful, brilliant, and selfless. She had shown this by coming to Grimmauld Place for Christmas to help Harry and him while his dad recovered in St Mungo's after being bitten by a large, venomous snake that belonged to Voldemort. Ron shuddered as he said the name in his head. But then his mind was back to thinking about Hermione Granger, again. She was all he thought about these days. He wanted to protect her from the bigots who want to hurt her, he knew better than anybody that she could look after herself, but it was still something he needed and wanted to do.

What he could not do, was tell her how he felt about her.

Ron was in love with her.

He had known for a while how he felt about her, it had been since seeing her lying on that bed petrified in second year when he realised how he felt. He loved and he had failed her, he had failed to protect her from the monster by letting her go off on her own. The reasons he had never told her how he felt about her were that he did not think she would feel the same way about him, and he didn't think he was good enough for her.

The Viktor Krum came along. He had asked her to the Yule Ball, which was something that he, Ron, failed to do, he wanted to but he couldn't find a way to ask her without giving himself away, and when he did find a way it was a disaster. Pretending to only just realise she was a girl had pissed her off, and she was already going with someone, who he later found out was Krum. Ron had seen that she was in contact with Krum by Owl post and guessed that she was going out with him.

Ron didn't have to think too hard about taking a killing curse for Hermione, he would do it gladly if it meant her survival in this war.

Ron realised he had been lying there, thinking about all this for over an hour, and as he had failed to fall asleep, he decided to go down to the kitchen for something to drink, and maybe a snack. So, climbing out of bed, he put on a dressing gown and slippers, picked up his wand, and left Harry to his snoring before quietly going downstairs.

Meanwhile, Hermione was still awake. She had been tossing and turning for the better part of an hour. She tried counting sheep, she tried all the techniques she could think of to induce sleep, but nothing was working. Frustrated, she pushed the duvet off of her and reached for her dressing gown, put it on over her nightdress as she slipped her feet into her slippers, grabbed her wand, and went downstairs for a hot beverage that might help her to sleep.

When she entered the kitchen she found that she was not the only one awake.

'Hi, Ron,' she said.

'Hey, Hermione, couldn't sleep?' he replied.

'No,' she said.

'Me neither, I'm making tea, want a cup?'

'Yes, please,' she replied.

'No problem, sit down and I'll bring it over,' he said as he took out another cup to make it.

When the tea was made he placed her cup in front of her and sat down next to her while putting his cup the table.

'Thank you,' she said.

Ron gave her a smile and said, 'No problem.'

Hermione turned to look at him and said, 'So, what's keeping you awake?'

He turned to look at her in turn and said, 'A whole bunch of stuff, but mainly the fact that I never thanked you.'

'Thanked me for what?'

'Coming here, helping Harry, giving up time with your parents to spend the holidays with us,' he said.

'It's no trouble, yes mum and dad are disappointed, but they understand as I told them that I needed to study,' she replied.

'You didn't tell them what happened?'

'No,' she said.

'What about you? What's keeping you awake?' he asked.

'The events of the last few days,' she told him.

Ron took a sip of tea to see if it was okay to drink before saying, 'Me too.'

There was silence in the kitchen before Ron spoke again, 'Some Christmas, eh?'

'It could be better, couldn't it?' she said dryly.

'It could be worse,' he said, 'Snape or Umbridge could be here.'

Hermione cracked a smile before having a sip of tea.

'You not being here,' he said seriously.

Hermione gave him another smile and said, 'You really know how to spread Christmas cheer, don't you?'

'What are you saying?'

'We should make the best of it, Ron, your dad is going to be okay, and we're all here,' she replied.

'Not all,' he said.

Hermione realised Ron was thinking about Charlie and Percy and said, 'You know they're both okay – Charlie and Percy, I mean.'

'Yeah,' he said.

'How's Harry doing?' she asked.

'Sleeping like a baby, crying and wetting the bed all night,' he joked.

Hermione giggled.

'He's snoring his bloody head off up there, which is another thing keeping me awake,' he said.

'You don't snore, then?' she asked.

'Dunno, I'm asleep, aren't I?'

'I suppose,' she said.

There was a period of silence for about a minute.

'May I ask you a personal question, Hermione?'

'I don't see why not.'

'What's the deal with you and Krum?'

'We're friends,' she replied.

'Why are you writing to him?'

'To help him improve his English,' she answered.

'Oh, so you're not going out, then?'

'No, I don't feel that way about him.'

'Oh, right,' he said, 'is there anybody you do like, though?'

'I'm not answering that, Ron, besides it's my turn to ask you a personal question,' said Hermione.

Ron chuckled and said, 'What's your question?'

'Is there anybody that you like?'

'Yeah, but I can't tell her,' he replied.

'Why not?' asked Hermione.

'She's too good for me, after all, I'm just Ron Weasley, Harry Potter's sidekick, while she's beautiful, brilliant, perfect and could have anyone she wanted … as much as I want to tell her, I can't, even if it is Christmas …'

'Is that all you think you are, Harry's sidekick?'

'Pretty much, just the bloke in the background nobody cares about,' he said.

'That's not true, Ron, there are plenty of people who about you, me, for example!'

'Thanks, I care about you too, Hermione …'

'I want you to tell this girl how you feel about her, it's Christmas and you should tell her.'

'She's too good for me, and I'm most certainly not good enough for her.'

'That's for her to decide, so tomorrow you're going to write to her and tell her, I'll help you if you need me too.'

'Hermione, are you suggesting that I send an owl to the girl I love telling her how I feel because it's Christmas?'

'Yes, I am.'

Ron took a deep breath and said, 'It would be a waste of time sending her an owl.'

'Why?' asked Hermione.

Ron took another deep breath and said, 'Because the girl I love is in this kitchen with me.'

Hermione was completely taken aback.

'Me?' she squeaked.

Ron could not speak anymore and just nodded.

'I'm not beautiful, Ron, I think you need your eyes tested.'

'Yes, you bloody are, Hermione, you are those things I said earlier and so much more! I understand if you don't feel the same way –'

'Who said that I don't?' asked Hermione cutting across him.

'It's obvious,' he said.

Hermione got to her feet and said, 'You are an idiot, Ronald Weasley, do you know that?'

'All too well, Hermione Granger,' he said.

'Say it, Ron, look me in the eyes and tell me you love me, so I know it's not a joke.'

Ron looked her in the eyes and said, 'I love you, Hermione.'

'I love you too, Ron,' she replied before kissing him.

Their kissing was awkward at first but they quickly got into a rhythm as Ron pulled Hermione on to his lap and her arms went around his neck as his arms went around her body.

When they broke apart, Ron said, 'That's what I call Christmas cheer, but, Hermione, why do you love me?'

'Telling you why I love you would take too long, right now, I just want you to kiss me,' she replied.

Ron obliged and they were kissing fiercely and with more passion this time as Hermione thread her fingers through his soft ginger locks, but this time when oxygen was needed he moved his lips to her neck causing her to whimper his name.

'I love you,' he whispered.

He stopped kissing her and she rested her head on his shoulder as he finished his tea while sitting in silence for a time.

'I think I can sleep now,' he said.

'Me too,' she replied.

'Do you want to sleep on the drawing room couch with me or do you want to go back to your room to sleep alone?'

'The first one,' Hermione answered.

'Cool.'

They got to their feet, washed up their cups and then went to the drawing room hand in hand. Ron lay down first and Hermione lay on top of him and kissed him again.

'Are we – y'know – together?' he asked.

'Are you asking if I'm your girlfriend?'

'Um, yeah,' he said.

'You should ask me properly, Ron.'

'All right, Hermione Jean Granger, will you be my girlfriend?'

'Yes, I will.'

Ron then kissed her again before saying, 'Merry Christmas, Hermione.'

'Merry Christmas, Ron,' Hermione replied before snuggling into him as he held her tight in his arms.

Ron played with her hair until she fell asleep in his arms. He watched her sleep for a little while before succumbing to sleep too.

The person who put a blanket over them as they slept, smiled and said, 'Just like James and Lily.'

The person who found them in the morning, smiled and said, 'It's about time.'

_**A/N: I'm not sure how I feel about this now I've finished. It started off okay but I'm not too sure about the end. I did give considerable thought into putting in a lemon, but on the whole I omitted it. This was due to the fact that Ron and Hermione's first time would be special, so him rutting her on the kitchen table or on the couch in the drawing room of Grimmauld Place simply would not do. This is another alliteratively named one-shot I will not be continuing, so don't put it on alert. Merry Christmas to all my faithful readers!**_


End file.
